DeVos Campaign Gets Dirty With Wikipedia

Members of Dick DeVos' campaign team inappropriately modified a non-partisan encyclopedia article by attempting to remove factual information about DeVos that may be perceived negatively. A Wikipedian using DeVos campaign computers removed and modified information about his background. From the article discussion page:

Envix, protests to the contrary, has edited from a network range associated with the DeVos Campaign. I have banned the range for the next six months, which puts us safely past the November election. Whether he is actually on the payroll or is merely a fellow-traveler is beside the point; he's using DeVos campaign equipment to influence an encyclopedia article. This is completely unacceptable.

Ouch!

The specific changes by the DeVos campaign include:

• Removed links to websites dedicated to Dick DeVos if they were negative or had negative connotations.
  
  
• Replaced relevant Amway/Alticor history with flattering Alticor PR.
  
  
• Removed information on Dick DeVos' reluctance to release his tax statements, despite the fact that this section contained arguments from both Mark Brewer and John Truscott.
  
  
• Added more flattering images to DeVos' page.
  

The "biographical" information was added from the Asian Symposium on Direct Selling, which the editor from the DeVos campaign claims to hold the copyright to. Because of this, it seems reasonably likely that whoever was in the DeVos campaign office is also involved in the "direct selling industry in China (i.e. Amway in China)." I don't find the "China" argument to be particularly compelling in comparison to other aspects of DeVos' history, but this should be interesting to anyone who does.

The individual from the DeVos campaign complained that the Granholm page didn't contain similar information about her. This person is missing a key point -- the information listed relevant biographical information and a part of Dick DeVos' history. Granholm does not have a similar background, so demands that biographical information be removed about DeVos because Granholm doesn't have similar history are unreasonable.

It is unfortunate that the DeVos campaign feels that they must stoop to this level of partisan hackery. Oh well -- if nothing else, its good to know about what they're worried about.

Amway Exposed, Part Three coming Monday.

(cross-posted on Michigan Liberal... front paged!)

EDIT: Thanks to Christine Barry for the plug on this, and the first two parts of the Amway series.